


Former General, Former Friend

by scalphunter



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, CT-7567 | Rex Needs a Hug, Double Drabble, Drama, Ficlet, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Gen, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Rex didn't die on Endor, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26240065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scalphunter/pseuds/scalphunter
Summary: Rex glares. Does not look towards the bunker where Ahsoka is asleep – Rex having all but bullied her into it.‘Rex. I'm - I'm sorry’
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker
Kudos: 56





	Former General, Former Friend

Rex hasn’t heard Anakin Skywalker in... Years.

He's heard the cold rasp of a ventilator from the voice of Darth Vader, but Anakin? No.

Anakin Skywalker died many years before that. Rex could say he saw it happen, let his world crumble around him, save, and in turn be saved by _~~Comm~~_ -Ahsoka.

Which is why when a ghost – _force_ ghost, not some mangy spirit – appears, he doesn’t do anything for a while.

He stares at the face of Anakin Skywalker. His former General. And former friend. Looks exactly as he did before Rex saw him for the last time before the whole galaxy went side-ways. All bright eyes that cared too much.

‘It worked! That’s... That’s good' is the first words he hears in years, and Rex can't bring himself to talk. So he does the next best thing.

Rex glares. Does not look towards the bunker where Ahsoka is asleep – Rex having all but bullied her into it, he himself staying out here because he didn't want to sleep.

‘Rex. I'm - I'm sorry’

Rex used to be a better man, used to take things in stride and be a more capable man in the process but not now. Not anymore. He's too old for any of this.

‘I’m not who you should apologising to' he says, curtly. ‘After all, stormtroopers were still just clones... Sir'.

He isn’t proud of it but he has a right to be angry damnit! Anakin does the same face-scrunch, when he is trying to say something but can't seem to get any of the words across. 

‘You know I never thought – I was selfish and I made mistakes. I wanted it all to be okay. I thought I was making it better. And when I realized I wasn’t it was too late’ Anakin's head drops, the ethereal form seems to waiver. He sounds so karking young again. ‘Everyone I ever loved is either gone or can barely think anything good of me. I don’t have much left anymore'.

Rex knows how he feels. He hopes Ahsoka outlives him, that is all he can ask for. Kenobi is gone. Cody is _~~Command of the Stormtroopers~~ _gone. 

‘You need to reach out to Ahsoka' he says, bluntly, dismissing how his own heart hurts, and Anakin flinches. ‘Coward’ Rex snaps, and that makes Anakin guiltily startle.

‘You’re right. You were always a better man than me, Rex' he says, and Rex doesn’t know because Anakin's eyes glimmer with tears, his smile is pushing for peace. It makes all of the coaxing darkness seem pointless now. 

Rex looks down at his hands, takes a breath, and when he looks up again – Anakin is already gone, not an essence even to show he was there at all. 

Rex wishes he never knew what happened to Anakin Skywalker, never found out that under the cruel and destructive hand of Darth Vader was his own blinding light of a General.

But if he has learned anything over the years, it is that sometimes in war it's hard to be the one left alive, because you see how everything that you trenched through for, everything you lost brothers and the people you love for, is all fleeting.

He hopes he can get some rest.

**Author's Note:**

> I did something that made me very upset. Using the Force ghost Anakin thing of RotJ and him seeking out his former Captain after all this time.


End file.
